Nashville provides creative spark for Matthews' post-Catatonia debut set. (Talent).

Of the many talents which emerged from the Brit-guitar fever of the Nineties, few were so warmly embraced by the British public as Cerys Matthews.

And, chances are, few will produce as personal and affecting a record as the first solo album from Matthews, Cockahoop, which arrives on May 19 this year.

Two years after recording the last Catatonia studio album, Matthews' debut is also something of a surprise. Recorded in Nashville, with Bob Dylan's slide guitarist Bucky Baxter as producer, the album spans the range from folk, country, pop and, even, Welsh hymns.

As her A&R man for more than a decade, Blanco Y Negro founder and managing director Geoff Travis, acknowledges, the driving force behind this dramatic change in direction was Matthews herself.

After writing with Graham Gouldman, Matthews joined the 10cc legend at a songwriting retreat in Nashville a year ago. Savouring the taste of Nashville, she cold-called Baxter--of whom she was aware as slide guitar collaborator of Bob Dylan, Steve Earle and Ryan Adams--last June, and turned up at his studio, in the mountains outside Nashville, a day later.

"I knew Bucky had been working with Ryan Adams," says Matthews. "I was looking for someone who was going to help get me started. I wanted the album to be recorded as live."

Set up in a log cabin with no running water, she was set to work writing songs. Soon, her original plan to record an album of traditional folk songs--from a list of 76 she had compiled--was jettisoned as Matthews' confidence built amid the peace and tranquility of Tennessee.